Ruby McBride
High School Freshman
April/May 2023
In America alone, 35-57% of adolescent girls (not to mention modern women) develop eating disorders. One of the reasons for this is the harsh beauty standards set in place for girls which is spread by various means but mainly by tv and social media. In order to understand what I'm about to talk about you will need to know some background information. In today's society almost everyone uses social media and/or watches some form of television. Whether they are being used for entertainment, news, or socialization with others, you will somehow be on either one if not both at some point in your average day. Needless to say many Americans spend roughly a quarter of the 24 hours in a day on social media and television combined. In this essay I will explain how television and the media are responsible for our concepts of female beauty standards.
Firstly television is a major factor in the spread and creation of Unrealistic beauty standards. Almost everyone has watched some form of TV in their life, and for most people it is a daily occurrence. Because of this, ideas and topics shown on television spread very fast to all sorts of different people. “It teaches nothing but to differentiate between the ugly and the beautiful and tells you constantly that if you’re ugly, you have to scrape by.”(haughterfly), This quote states exactly what is being learned from these TV shows by their audiences. Television like this is created by directors creating an ideal world with characters that usually don't look like the average woman that you may see in real life. They hire actors and create characters who follow the American norm of beauty. “America has a culturally accepted norm of what makes someone beautiful. A standard that is hard to meet. Being light-skinned, blonde and blue-eyed is the benchmark of beauty, of what is most desirable.” (scholarworks), Females in these ideal worlds that are portrayed women and girls as desirable, very attractive, beautiful, and popular.Commonly they are fair skinned, have long straight hair, are skinny, have clear skin, have perfect hair and makeup, pearly white teeth, don't wear glasses, typically are blonde with long hair, and an endless amount of degrading standards. While they portray the unpopular “ugly” girls as overweight, usually a woman of color, have braces and glasses, and typically have short brown hair. While television has a more than acceptable amount of beauty standards, don't think that avoiding TV will keep you safe from these harsh standards that have been put in place for females all over the world.
Television isn't the only responsible factor in the creation and spread of these unrealistic beauty standards. Social media is an even bigger factor than TV in the spread of these unreachable standards that is even faster spreading. The average amount of time a typical American spends on social media is a little over 2 hours a day and it acts as a form of escapism to many young girls. Social media is filled with beautiful women all over the world posting pictures or videos of their life. What these influencers show are just bits and pieces of their seemingly “perfect” daily life. They sadly only post pictures of themselves with perfect makeup and zero bloating or imperfections. This leads other girls to believe that this is beauty and that she must look like that. “when she [Taylor Swift] spoke about the media's dangerously unrealistic expectations of beauty of women. She said in an interview, “If you’re thin enough, then you don’t have that a** that everybody wants. But if you have enough weight on you to have an a**, your stomach isn’t flat enough. It’s all just f**ing impossible.”" (haughterfly), Taylor swift is a household name and a very successful and beautiful woman. Even she knows how dangerous and impossible these standards are; Society has set the standard that to be beautiful you need to be skinny. Constantly showing and portraying skinny and underweight girls as the standard and goal for women and girls causes females (who are normally a healthy and perfectly normal weight) that don't have a petite build and are bigger than the women shown to them, to feel fat and “ugly”. These negative thoughts will constantly bug them whenever they look in the mirror. Eating disorders plague the minds of 35-57% of young girls, making them believe the best thing for their body is to starve themselves and be extremely malnourished. EDs are extremely dangerous and can cause additional mental illnesses and even death. “bright eyes and sculpted abs look like a distant dream in the Walmart grocery store's stark reality. She stares at the famous artist of the month and envies her success, but not because of her successful music career, but because she has the world's ideal body” (scholarworks), Women and young girls all over the U.S. are constantly surrounded by the image of a “perfect” woman who fits into society’s impossible to achieve standards. Being a young girl surrounded by these images of unattainable bodies greatly affects your concept of beauty and how you view yourself. Some people may argue that these standards of beauty are not hurting females and were solved in the 80’s.
Yes standards have improved and more diversity is being shown, but females all over America are still being hurt and affected by beauty standards in place. As I stated previously many adolescent girls are currently struggling with eating disorders, these are very dangerous and harm many girls. Eating disorders stem from body dysmorphia and being unconfident in one's body. While there are many types of eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, rumination, and many more devastating conditions.“They [modern women] no longer have to adhere to a well-prescribed regimen to be considered womanly, or even beautiful.” (Lehrman), It is easy to see how someone could think this but it is factually untrue. As a female myself in today’s society we still have to meet certain standards/follow certain regimens to be considered “womanley” or beautiful. Standards such as, having shaven arms, legs, and underarms, perfectly plucked eyebrows, wearing feminine clothing (this has luckily decreased over the years and women are receiving more acceptance for wearing less feminine clothing), wearing makeup, and other things seen as something a woman must do. “Women Are Not Harmed by Societal Standards of Beauty” (Lehrman), Societal beauty standards can greatly harm a woman. They can cause major mental and physical health problems such body dysmorphia and eating disorders (which is both physical and mental health). Many females will starve themselves, try crazy fad diets, exercise until they get sick or are unable to move, and so many more unhealthy things. As I stated before, eating disorders are very dangerous and can lead to death. Sadly many young girls die from them. Many people may think “Beauty standards aren't that harsh and are very realistic. Women just need to exercise and not pig out on food”, while I understand that you may not have been held to as many standards. While I am glad that you lived free of these issues they are still a present and serious problem in society today. Many females may not show that they are struggling but never assume what another person is dealing with on the daily. I know as a female myself and from having female friends that this is a very large issue that we deal with. Either just from seeing it on social media, or tv, or people in real life calling us ugly and fat because we don't fit into these standards.
The societal beauty standards females are held to are greatly influenced by the media and television. Television and the media have spread achievable standards for women that can be greatly harmful and can shatter a girl’s confidence. These standards are not going to go away anytime soon if we do not take action to put them to rest. What you can do to help spread realistic achievable beauty standards is to post un-edited content, make supportive and positive comments on body positive posts. This will be hard to overcome and put to rest but it is our responsibility to try our best to support and encourage other women and not bring them down. If the media used average and realistic looking women of all colors, shapes, and sizes then women all over the world will finally learn to love themselves and look into the mirror and realize how beautiful they really are. As I once read, “Nobody is ever satisfied enough with how women look. Either it’s too fat, too skinny, too ugly, too pretty, it’s just always too much of everything and we need to not let these things affect us. Embrace yourself and love yourself.” (haughterfly).
Works Cited
Bareis, Hannah. “University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Scholarworks@Uark.” Media’s Portrayal of Women and Its Impact on Body Image and Self-Esteem , University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, 2021, https://scholarworks.uark.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1054&context=mktguht
Georgiev , D. (2023). How much time do people spend on social media in 2023? Techjury. Retrieved April 4, 2023, from https://techjury.net/blog/time-spent-on-social-media/#gref
Lake, R. (2023, February 26). Television statistics: 23 mind-numbing facts to watch. CreditDonkey. Retrieved April 4, 2023, from https://www.creditdonkey.com/television-statistics.html#:~:text=Nearly%2080%25%20include%20TV%20and,of%20TV%20every%20single%20day.
Marrinan , K. (2019). American Beauty Standards: “Paling” in Comparison to the White Norm. Skidmore College Creative Matter. Retrieved April 4, 2023, from https://creativematter.skidmore.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1021&context=socio_stu_stu_schol#:~:text=In%20conclusion%2C%20the%20American%20standard,an%20unattainable%20standard%20of%20beauty
Meerza , S. (2020, May 26). 5 movies and TV shows that portray fat women or different women as ugly. this needs to stop. Hauterrfly. Retrieved April 4, 2023, from https://hauterrfly.com/fashion/5-movies-and-tv-shows-that-portray-fat-women-or-different-women-as-ugly-this-needs-to-stop/
Shah, M. (2020, March 25). Shilpa Shetty says she was insecure of Sister Shamita Shetty because Shilpa was darker. when will we stop defining fair as beautiful? Hauterrfly. Retrieved April 10, 2023, from https://hauterrfly.com/beauty/shilpa-shetty-says-she-was-insecure-of-sister-shamita-shetty-because-shilpa-was-darker-when-will-we-stop-defining-fair-as-beautiful/
Bose, S. (2020, January 28). Taylor Swift Calls media's beauty expectations "F*cking impossible" to keep up with and we're glad someone's talking about it. Hauterrfly. Retrieved April 10, 2023, from https://hauterrfly.com/beauty/taylor-swift-miss-americana-2020/
Lehrman, Karen. "Women Are Not Harmed by Societal Standards of Beauty." Feminism, edited by Jennifer A. Hurley, Greenhaven Press, 2001. Opposing Viewpoints. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/EJ3010122218/OVIC?u=cast18629&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=f9b7487e. Accessed 11 Apr. 2023. Originally published in The Lipstick Proviso: Women, Sex, and Power in the Real World.
Rittenhouse, Margot. “Eating Disorders among Teen Girls.” Eating Disorder Hope, 1 Mar. 2022, https://www.eatingdisorderhope.com/risk-groups/eating-disorder-teen-girls#:~:text=Research%20has%20learned%20that%20%E2%80%9C35,an%20eating%20disorder%20%5B3%5D.
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